RE: Sarah Palin

Whatever intrigue she has for some people certainly has to nothing to do with her achievements, which are scant, nor to her clearly delineated stances on issues, which in many cases don't even exist. Her "followers" also seem to be willing to overlook a level of family dysfunction that they usually condemn out of hand.

I'll give a civil response, but I know this thread will be deleted by the end of the afternoon...

I blame all this on McCain. If he hadn't chosen her as a running mate, she still be the Governor of Alaska and none of this would have ever happened.

I don't think she has the intellect or the curiosity to lead the country. I also don't think she's open to ideas, which means she'd be reluctant to listen to outside opinions that could benefit her decision making--much like GWB.

The current "leadership" of the GOP has really painted themselves into a corner. There are countless fiscally conservative/socially moderate people who will NEVER vote for this incarnation of the Republican party.

Palin's gone a long way on two things--one, she's tapped into populist anger over a number of issues--most of which the average Joe (the Plumber) doesn't understand. She's also taken advantage of her good looks. Sounds sexist, but if she looked like Newt Gingrich, she'd be reading baseball scores on an Anchorage radio station right now.

I don't know why my thread was deleted. I didn't think it was offensive in any way. If the mods don't want political threads they should make that point blatant, but not be selective about what is posted and what isn't. Pretty lame IMO.

I don't understand the fascination with this women. As you stated, she is not intelligent. Period. Her educational background is laughable for a politician, or even an ordinary citizen (communications degree from a state school). She has the basic credentials to be a librarian (and the looks), but that's where it ends.

campana wrote:

I don't know why my thread was deleted. I didn't think it was offensive in any way. If the mods don't want political threads they should make that point blatant, but not be selective about what is posted and what isn't. Pretty lame IMO.

I don't understand the fascination with this women. As you stated, she is not intelligent. Period. Her educational background is laughable for a politician, or even an ordinary citizen (communications degree from a state school). She has the basic credentials to be a librarian (and the looks), but that's where it ends.

A lot of kickback and anger towards the elitist class fuels her popularity. Look at your own post.

You think the ordinary citizen has more than a communications degree from a state school? What world do you live in?

You laugh at people with degrees from state schools but who were the CEOs and politicians that were partially to blame for the economic meltdown. Where did their degrees come from?

She connects with a lot of people who don't have Ivy league degrees. I don't have a degree and wouldn't vote for her but I think it is obvious why people are fascinated with her.

AND...Her good looks account for about 85% of her popularity.

repub wrote:

A lot of kickback and anger towards the elitist class fuels her popularity. Look at your own post.

You think the ordinary citizen has more than a communications degree from a state school? What world do you live in?

You laugh at people with degrees from state schools but who were the CEOs and politicians that were partially to blame for the economic meltdown. Where did their degrees come from?

She connects with a lot of people who don't have Ivy league degrees. I don't have a degree and wouldn't vote for her but I think it is obvious why people are fascinated with her.

AND...Her good looks account for about 85% of her popularity.

A comm degree from a state school is pretty ordinary. I'd compare it to a high school diploma in the 1950's. That level of education is expected of an ordinary person. I don't laugh at people with degrees from state schools (I have one, and an MS from a state school), but I laugh at anyone who thinks it's a credible degree for a high level politician.

If you want to point blame on the economic meltdown, it happened on Bush's watch. He has a degree from Yale, which is not a state school.

"She connects with a lot of people who don't have Ivy league degrees"... Fricking great! How does that make her qualified for public office?

I could walk half a block and spot 20 women hotter than her. Hell, every women I work with is hotter than her.

So, no, I still don't understand her popularity. She's nothing more than an ordinary mom.

Palin seems like a darling but the same as Hillary Clinton, Palin is anti-semtitic, is against freedom in Palestine, and Human Rights in Palestine. Not for me.

Curious George Washington wrote:I blame all this on McCain. If he hadn't chosen her as a running mate, she still be the Governor of Alaska and none of this would have ever happened.

To the degree it has I'd tend to agree with you. However, Palin has an ambitious streak a mile wide so she certainly would have shown up on the scene at some point. Most likely would have been a speech at the convention in a less prominent time slot. I doubt that would have led to a book deal though.

I remember listening to an interview with her months before McCain picked her. It was quite a contrast to her post-nomination speeches, emphasizing bipartisanship. People forget the sarahpalinforvp.com web site showed up about 2 months after she won the governorship. Of course the primary reason she got the interview was the web site that she claimed to have nothing to do with, it was just a grassroots movement. Hmmm.

I will admit I'm somewhat fascinated by all the hoopla about beauty queens and the right wing. If a left leaning person had flunked out of schools, had a kid who had a child out of wedlock, posed nude, or did a sex tape they would be savaged by the right wing media. How about one that had a spouse involved in executive matters? That would light them up.

All that is given a pass if you talk conservative and have a great pair of hooters. Quite a phenomenon if you ask me. The right savaged McCain for not being conservative enough, but they worship Carrie Prejean. Go figure.

"You may not like Obama for his policies, but at least the guy is intelligent."

Sorry for the hijack, but..

what evidence are you using when you say that Obama is intelligen? He has not released his college transcripts as far as I know.

I know he's darn good with a teleprompter, but seriously, what's the basis of comparison here?

Obama is anti-Semitic too. The same as Bush, Hillary, Condoleeza, Cheney, Biden, all of them. They don't want Civil Rights in Palestine. What would MLK think ?

It's pretty simple. She's beyond polarizing! Men want her and women want to be her. She tells it like it is. She is the embodiment of the middle class. Someone that we all can relate to and has the same problems/fortunes as us. She will work for the common man not liberal lobbyists. She has executive experience and ran Alaska incredibly (look up her accomplishments, tax cuts, ect. during her tenure) and last but not least, she's easy on the eyes.

The writing is on the wall that she'll be elected as POTUS in 2012!

lurking_fool wrote:

"You may not like Obama for his policies, but at least the guy is intelligent."

Sorry for the hijack, but..

what evidence are you using when you say that Obama is intelligen? He has not released his college transcripts as far as I know.

I know he's darn good with a teleprompter, but seriously, what's the basis of comparison here?

Exactly. When he speaks he sounds like a bumbling idiot. His view of politics the economy and world affairs is almost childlike.

It doesn't have to do with where Palin went to school. The woman is dishonest and an idiot. And she's clearly lower-middle class to middle class (at best) in terms of her educational achievements in not having a real college degree. Financially, obviously she's managed to become upper class.

If a smart guy goes to a state-type school, finances may have been a factor and/or grades in school - which may not be very good for motivation reasons. In Palin's case the woman is plain dumb (genetics) whether she had attended Yale institution or a community college.

______________________________________

Anyone on LetsRun is at least moderately well-educated and/or intelligent (and most likely pretty liberal) so it's no surprise that someone like Palin (who appeals to lower-middle class folks) that she is going to get bashed like hell on here.

Most Palin supporters still have their AOL 9.0/Internet Explorer browser default to aol.com and didn't get on the web until circa 2004.

lurking_fool wrote:what evidence are you using when you say that Obama is intelligen? He has not released his college transcripts as far as I know.

I know he's darn good with a teleprompter, but seriously, what's the basis of comparison here?

From Wikipedia:

"Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review."

Grades aside, it's very difficult to get into school at both of these universities. And, the president of the Harvard Law Review is big too.

"He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004."

Again, not just any schmuck can teach constitutional law. Then there are the two books he wrote... one of which was well before his emergance on the national stage.

NObama........................ wrote:

It's pretty simple. She's beyond polarizing! Men want her and women want to be her. She tells it like it is. She is the embodiment of the middle class. Someone that we all can relate to and has the same problems/fortunes as us. She will work for the common man not liberal lobbyists. She has executive experience and ran Alaska incredibly (look up her accomplishments, tax cuts, ect. during her tenure) and last but not least, she's easy on the eyes.

The writing is on the wall that she'll be elected as POTUS in 2012!

1/10

She quit her job. She "will work" for nobody. Bitch is rolling in millions on this book deal, and she'll retire high on the hog fishing and snowmobiling with her hubby. I'm jealous of the wealth that's being handed to her, but I can't stand the retards that think this woman was in any way qualified to be VP of the country. My mom is more qualified.

Sarah Palin gets so much attention for the same reason people slow down on the highway to look at a car accident. A lot of people pay attention to her just so they can hear the next insane thing she says or get more dirt on her feud with Bristol's baby daddy. That is why she was on Oprah. Tea baggers don't watch Oprah.

The tea baggers like her because she represents a departure from the usual multi-millionaire type that has become the center of national politics for the Republican party, like Romney, Forbes, and even McCain by way of his wife's millions. People, rightfully so, want to see someone in power who is more like they are, who have the same economic and social burdens that they have. The irony is that the current media blitz for Palin will easily make her a multi-millionaire.

I think Palin hopes to be a sort of Reagan-eque figure. The problem is that Palin is out there on her own. Reagan was the figure head for a large number of well established and skilled Republican party players. Thus, whenever Palin opens her mouth on a policy issue, it becomes clear that she has no real grasp and is not carefully scripted they way Reagan was.

She quit the job because she knows she can handle more and on a larger scale as POTUS. Lots of people quit jobs for more successful ventures and you just illustrated that she did just that. So what if she's making money off a book deal?

And if your mom is so qualified, tell her to run for governor of a state and lets see how far she gets.

Palin 2012

Do you know what it means to be anti-Semitic? If anything our political leaders (especially conservatives) have been very supportive of Isreal. I don't think Bush or Cheney were "hostile" towards Jews. Palestinians, yes, but not Jews!

Webster definition

an·ti–Sem·i·tism

: hostility toward or discrimination against JEWS as a religious, ethnic, or racial group

NObama........................ wrote:

It's pretty simple. She's beyond polarizing! Men want her and women want to be her. She tells it like it is. She is the embodiment of the middle class. Someone that we all can relate to and has the same problems/fortunes as us. She will work for the common man not liberal lobbyists. She has executive experience and ran Alaska incredibly (look up her accomplishments, tax cuts, ect. during her tenure) and last but not least, she's easy on the eyes.

The writing is on the wall that she'll be elected as POTUS in 2012!

TROLLbama,

As I always ask when you post this ... can you please list her accomplishments as governor. I ask each time, you fail to deliver each time.

We agree on one thing, she represents middle America very well. Unfortunately the average American these days is borderline retarded.

I can tell you this, as a man, I don't want her in any way. When I start craving grandmothers, I'll know I've hit rock bottom.

Please feel free to join the idiot masses and nominate her to represent the GOP. She's a perfect fit!

First, a disclaimer: I don't think Palin has the necessary experience to be president. What she does have is a very appealing personal narrative, plus identity politics (female, rural, etc.). Apparently that same standard was not used in picking our president in 2008, as Obama is the other side of the same coin.

However, I do "like" her, for reasons not all of her own making. I like the fact that she has all the right enemies. The fact that her "red-state," rural, pro-life, pro-gun "normalcy" drives the beltway crowd nuts makes me chuckle. And this includes both the left and the snobs of the right, like David Brooks, etc.

I like her for reasons of sympathy. Her treatment at the hands of the media, particularly in light of the kid-gloves treatment of Obama (for example, 11 AP fact-checkers for her book, where the only thing fact-checked on him is whether SNL was too tough on him) both validates my prejudices about media bias and makes me want to defend her (even when she deserves the criticism, by the way). I felt the same way about Reagan, George W. Bush, Cheney, Dan Quayle, and even poor, stupid, and naked Carrie Prejean.

This leads to the "anti-intellectual" business. Many conservatives have gotten tired of being told for years that we, and those who agree with us, are stupid. First, Reagan was stupid (even though his voluminous writings in his own handwriting indicate otherwise), but Jimmy Carter, in spite of his feckless presidency was brilliant. Then was Quayle. Then Bush 43. Having a Yale BA and a Harvard MBA counted for nothing--he MUST be dumber than Gore or Kerry, even when test scores and transcripts proved them to be almost exactly on the same intellectual level. Meanwhile, we see plenty of Ivy-league types who seemingly couldn't run a lemonade stand. I work in academics, and I know these people--some of the dumbest geniuses you'll ever meet. So the visceral reaction against that level of prejudice is to perversely translate lack of demonstrated intellect into a badge of honor compared to the know-nothing "elites." We haven't forgotten that Truman didn't go to college, nor that Reagan went to Eureka. That doesn't make the prejudice any more correct, but it's there. And honestly, I think I'd rather see a President or Supreme Court Justice with top marks from the University of Tennessee than yet another Harvard-Yale-Princeton type, particularly if there are questions as to whether "diversity" may have influenced their admission. (If Bush's family explains why he got into Yale, can't we question whether Obama's unique heritage may have influenced his admission to Harvard, especially in the absence of a transcript?)

Anyway, all of that said, I wouldn't vote for her. But I understand why she lights people's fire (on both sides of the aisle). I'll probably get flamed for saying anything remotely complimentary about her, but that's an honest answer.